Bimodal IT - changing your IT department from rule police to business partner

Some industry commentators believe we've reached the end of the era in which organisations' IT departments "own" their IT. Central to this change are two factors sweeping the current IT landscape: firstly, the move to alternative consumption models which includes everything from private, to public, to hybrid cloud options in which the technology isn't owned by the organisation itself.

Secondly, there's a much stronger focus on the end user and his/her demand for greater mobility, flexibility, and more choice in how and where to work, and which tools and devices to use for which tasks.

The pace of this evolution is so fast that IT departments are struggling to keep up. And where they fail to meet the organisation's need for constant innovation that sharpens competitive edge, business units are taking matters into their own hands. With the rise of what's called "shadow IT," individual business units bypass what they believe to be their snail-paced IT departments and procure IT services that meet their needs faster and more conveniently.

"But where do organisations draw the line?" asks David Danto, Principal Consultant for Collaboration at Dimension Data. "Is a line still necessary between allowing business units to "do their own thing," and the need to standardise and economise, which is usually the IT department's remit? Are we about to witness IT becoming a messy free-for-all?"